Provided

Karel Husa

Internationally acclaimed composer and conductor Karel Husa, Cornell's Kappa Alpha Professor of Music Emeritus, turned 90 this past August. In honor of this milestone, the Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club and the Eastman Wind Ensemble will present a special concert conducted by Scott Tucker, Saturday, Feb. 25, at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.

Given Foundation Professor of Music Steven Stucky says that Husa's "personal passion and the really highly dramatic nature of his music made it approachable even though it was unfamiliar. I think that was a big step in the reception of modern American music in this country."

Husa joined the Cornell faculty in 1954, retiring in 1992 after 38 years. His awards include the 1993 Grawemeyer Award and the 1969 Pulitzer Prize in music.

The major work featured in the concert is Husa's "Apotheosis of this Earth." Husa writes that its composition was "motivated by the present desperate stage of mankind and its immense problems with everyday killings, war, hunger, extermination of fauna, huge forest fires and critical contamination of the whole environment."

The program also includes Husa's "Divertimento," performed by the Eastman Wind Ensemble. Composed early in Husa's tenure at Cornell, it is a re-orchestrated, four-movement excerpt of his "Eight Czech Duets" for four-hand piano, Eastman Wind Ensemble Director Mark Davis Scatterday is a former member of Cornell's music faculty.

The Chorus and Glee Club and the Eastman Wind Ensemble also will perform Husa's "Festive Ode," originally composed for Cornell's Centennial Celebration and first performed in Barton Hall in October 1964.

Linda B. Glaser is staff writer for the College of Arts and Sciences; Loralyn Light is events manager for the Department of Music.